In 1680, Samuel Pepys sat down with Charles II to record how, many years before, a bold double-bluff saved the King from Cromwell’s men.
Following defeat at Worcester on September 3rd, 1651, King Charles II (who was just twenty-one at the time) reluctantly fled to France, stumbling in disguise towards the south coast, never more than a step ahead of Cromwell’s men. In 1680, the King looked back in the company of Samuel Pepys on those anxious days, and what happened one famous night at Boscobel House in Shropshire.
Almost nine years after Oliver Cromwell’s army drove him from England, King Charles II returned at their invitation, and John Evelyn was there to see it.
On May 29th, 1660, King Charles II rode into London, nine years after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester and exile to the Continent. The King’s return was witnessed by diarist John Evelyn, who had fought for the Royalist cause. He too had endured exile, in France and in Italy, and since his return to London had chafed under Cromwell’s self-righteous nanny state.